Justin Zoch's Upper Midwest Ramblings, Part One
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
We’re back. After a month long hiatus, which featured an 11-day orgy of open wheels to start August, that followed by a two-week famine, this forum finally returned to the racetrack, albeit for one show, at the Knoxville weekly event. With the Nationals in the books as a success, despite a soggy midsection, Ramblings found solace in concerts (the always terrific Hank III, a surprising Los Diablos and a disappointing Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash) and baseball but it was certainly nice to be back in Knoxville.
News and Notes
Brian Brown knew it was his race to lose from the pole on Saturday night and he drove excellently to score his second Knoxville win of the season. He’s got nine victories on the season, seven of them coming in 360 action. He was scheduled to do a one-off with Larry Haneborg, who owns Geoff Dodge’s 44x car, in Wichita, Kansas, a week previous but never made a competitive lap due to mechanical failure. Brown is now solidly third in the point standings…Kerry Madsen came very close to clinching the title when Wayne Johnson was involved in the first lap pileup with Clint Garner. Originally, the yellow was coming out for a false start but the pileup necessitated a red. With all cars in the work area, Knoxville officials had to make a tough decision. Would cars involved in the red flag be sent to the tail since the yellow came out first? After much discussion, the answer was yes and Johnson, Calvin Landis and Jon Agan went to the tail. Johnson went out after spinning the car once and eventually finished his miserable night with a turn four flip. He is now 185 points behind Madsen heading into the finale, which will not be rescheduled if rain interferes…As for Agan, it was quite extraordinary that he was able to continue after a scary end-over-end flip. Agan’s car rolled back to the work area and returned for a 12th place finish.
Greg Jones was still euphoric after winning the E-main on the finale of the Nationals. Jones and Tyler Houseman were E transfers, a great moment for two low buck locals. Jones passed along that every tire he used on Sunday night was gathered from Outlaws throwaways outside turn three the previous few nights. He plans to make his usual trip to the Third Mile Nationals at Eagle once Knoxville is completed…Three drivers made their 2005 Knoxville debuts on Saturday. Travis Cram caused the most fanfare when he subbed for John VanDenBerg in the McCarl 7X. VanDenBerg was recovering at home after a serious auto accident on Friday night and Cram happily jumped into the cockpit. Unfortunately, the engine smoked all evening and Cram missed the A-main. One can only hope we’ll see more of Cram in 2006. Curtis Thorson jumped into Steve Wares’ 10 car for the weekend and finally made his long-promised Knoxville debut. Thorson had only raced once in 2005, a 305 non-wing show at Stuart. Thorson will finish out the season with Wares. No word on whether Jeff Mitrisin will haul his 5J out again for the finale. The final debut driver was Jay Landolt, who returned in Chuck Stinebaker’s 21S. The team was frustrated after an incident with Tommy Worley Jr. and did not wish to return to St. Francois County on Saturday night. Landolt missed the A transfer by one spot and was undecided if they’d return this weekend…Trevor Reynolds upstaged them all and made his Knoxville Raceway debut. Reynolds is from Perth in Western Australia and crews on Brent Antill’s car in the States.
It is hard to believe in late August that Jake Peters has only won six features this season, including two at Knoxville. Peters has been spectacularly consistent on the famous half-mile this season and has 14 top-five finishes in 16 weekly events this season. Congratulations to Peters on a well-deserved title. Peters is one of the good guys of the sport and seeing him succeed never really gets tiring…John Kearney has strutted to second in the standings, passing Johnny Anderson, with his runner-up finish. Kearney pulled out the backup car after crashing the primary car at the Brodix Tournament of Champions. His car owner, Brian Ridge, ran fourth in 305 competition on Friday at Bloomfield. Louis Lynch won the event…Dusty Zomer had a productive weekend, winning on Friday at I-90’s ASCS Midwest Series event, charging from 14th to third on a tight racetrack in the Knoxville 360s on Saturday and rounding out his trip with a third in the 410s at Huset’s. Zomer will be a leading contender to get his first 410 win at Knoxville in 2006 and win Rookie of the Year honors…The 2005 Knoxville 410 Rookie of the Year, Kaley Gharst, also won the Nationals first-timer award and was awarded with a plaque on Saturday at the break. Gharst is still only 17, despite several seasons of racing. He lied about his age for the first few seasons of his career, actually starting when he was 14. Only Eldora required proof of age…Colin Northway burnt down another engine while leading the first heat race on Saturday night. Dennis Moore Jr. continues to help the Marion native while waiting to return to the cockpit in 2006. Moore’s super sub Jonathan Allard nearly won the World of Outlaws event in Elma, Washington, on Friday before Steve Kinser, yawn, passed him with three to go. Donny Schatz returned the favor to the King on Saturday in the finale.
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